I know physical media for computer software and movies/music has dwindled in popularity with the advent of downloads and streaming, but it’s still around. And, despite upgrades in technology and storage capacity, it seems like we’re still going with the 4.7” optical disc.
CDs. DVDs. Blu-ray. Console games. All still use the good ol’ “CD” form factor after almost half a century.
What are the reasons for this? Is it just due to familiarity? Is the manufacturing and distribution infrastructure just too well established and not easy to change? Is there anything on the horizon to replace it? Or is “the disc” really just the end of the line for consumer physical media? Curious.
In: Technology
Its in part the reasons you posted. It’s also just about the perfect size for disk based media. Any larger and its cumbersome. But making it smaller exponentially reduces the surface area you have to write to. A disk half the size of a CD has far less than half the capacity of a CD.
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